Main menu

For the second day in a row, Audi was the car to beat in practice at Sebring.

Audi, Ferrari remain quickest in Sebring testing

March 12, 2012

Share

Facebook

Tweet

Pinterest

Email

Audi Sport Team Joest ended Tuesday's test session at Sebring International Raceway the same way it closed Monday--with the top three times in testing for Saturday's season-opening 12 Hours of Sebring. The Audi R18 of Rinaldo Capello, Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish set the best time of the day at 1 minute, 48.138 seconds (124.508 mph) as all of the German factory prototypes cracked the 1:49 mark in the final test for the 60th-anniversary race.

Audi is looking for its first win in the 12 Hours since 2009. The R18 of Timo Bernhard, Romain Dumas and Loïc Duval--a winner last year in Team ORECA Matmut's Peugeot--was second at 1:48.410 (124.195 mph). The trio of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoît Tréluyer sat third, 0.701 second off the pace of the lead Audi.

There was a spirited fight for the best of the nondiesel runners. Dyson Racing's 2012-spec Lola-Mazda shared by Chris Dyson, Guy Smith and Steven Kane was fourth at 1:50.243 (122.130 mph). Two of the new HPD ARX-03as were next up, from Strakka Racing and Muscle Milk Pickett Racing, respectively.

The top three cars in LMP2 were within 0.362 second of each other. Pecom Racing's ORECA-Nissan of Luis Pérez Companc, Pierre Kaffer and Soheil Ayari led the way at 1:53.527 (118.597 mph) followed by a pair of HPD ARX-03bs. Level 5's entry of Scott Tucker, Christophe Bouchut and João Barbosa was second with a lap of 1:53.883. Starworks Motorsports' HPD of Ryan Dalziel, Vicente Potolicchio and Stéphane Sarrazin moved into the third on the car's final lap.

The GT battle was as tight as ever, with Ferraris leading the way. AF Corse's F458 Italia of Gimmi Bruni, Giancarlo Fisichella and Toni Vilander went quickest at 2:01.097 (111.184 mph), just 0.043 second ahead of Luxury Racing's entry.

Flying Lizard Motorsports' Porsche 911 GT3 RSR of Jörg Bergmesiter, Patrick Long and Marco Holzer ended the session third at 2:01.341 (110.960 mph), just 0.074 second ahead of BMW Team Rahal Letterman Lanigan's leading BMW M3 GT of Jörg Müller, Bill Auberlen and Uwe Alzen. The top eight cars were within 0.879 second of each other.

CORE autosport's lead ORECA FLM09 led the Prototype Challenge following a lap of 1:55.473 (116.599 mph) for the car of Colin Braun, Jon Bennett and Eric Lux. The CORE car was more than a second clear of PR1/Mathiasen Motorsports' entry of Butch Leitzinger, Rudy Junco and Ken Dobson. Merchant Services Racing–making its ALMS debut–was third-quickest at 1:56.804 (115.270 mph); Chapman Ducote, Javier Echeverria and Pablo Sanchez share the car.

Krohn Racing, last year's GTE-Am winner at Sebring, was quickest in the class at 2:02.991 (109.471 mph) with its Ferrari F458 Italia of Tracy Krohn, Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo. Larbre Competition's lead Corvette C6.R of Patrick Bornhauser, Julian Canal and Pedro Lamy was just 0.203 second behind.